There's definitely a Creative Cloud based announcement on the 23rd, but nothing has been confirmed regarding details. We may or may not hear a shipping date. Of course, it's better to upgrade earlier rather than later.

So get ready for another 1.7Gb download. I wonder what the upgrade cost is going to be outside of America.

Well, we can expect it to be LOADS more expensive than the US price, of course, but for those who take advantage of the free CS6 offering, let's hope that upgrading a previous version to CS5.5 and getting a free upgrade to CS6 will be cheaper than upgrading from the same previous version directly to CS6.

Perhaps I'm missing something and it will suddenly hit me like a bolt of lightning but so far I'm almost completely indifferent to Photoshop CS6. In fact I keep going back to CS5.1. Sure there are a few new features that I really don't need and yet if I don't buy CS6 I won't be eligable for a CS7 upgrade from what I've understood, which just feels all wrong. It's also contrary to what I was reading at the time when I bought CS5.1.

I upgraded from LR3 to LR4 recently because it made sense to me and I could see a genuine improvement in processing quality, however I doubt if this new upgrade policy on Photoshop will generate much enthusiasm among existing customers unless they slash the price like Apple has done for their OS upgrades. Somehow I doubt that is going to happen.

I've spoken to a few other photographers I know recently and two of them said they saw no reason to upgrade from CS3 for their work. The new crop tool is nice and I'm glad they have finally caught up with Lightroom but I can't shake the feeling that various new features look far better in the web demos than they actually work in practice. The content-aware move tool springs to mind as a quick example. Everybody is different and I accept that some will see CS6 as a must have upgrade but it shouldn't feel like a "forced" must have upgrade.

From reading the posts here I see that some people agree with you about the value of the new features not being worth an upgrade while others feel the opposite. I suppose it depends on individual workflows and the feature set that different people use, so I don't think you are missing anything. Naturally the images selected to use in demos will be chosen for their suitability, and other images may need some prepping before features like the content-aware ones will yield the desired results, but that is not anything specific to PS CS6.

I was under the impression that, due to a campaign by Scott Kelby, Adobe had announced that owners of CS4 (and maybe CS3?) were eligible to purchase CS6 for the upgrade price without purchasing an interim CS5.

You are correct, ckc48. Although pricing has not been announced yet, Adobe has stated that they will be offering users of CS3 and CS4 a chance to upgrade. Please see the link below for more information:

I was under the impression that, due to a campaign by Scott Kelby, Adobe had announced that owners of CS4 (and maybe CS3?) were eligible to purchase CS6 for the upgrade price without purchasing an interim CS5.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Adobe did do an about-face and are allowing owners of CS3 and CS4 to upgrade to CS6 at an upgrade price. However, the announcement was that this is only for CS6 and that for upcoming versions (CS7) only the immediate previous version will qualify for an upgrade.

This isn't just about money for everybody either because there are clearly people out there who can afford to upgrade with every version and yet many simply don't want or need to upgrade, so even for those people this move manages to provoke a negative reaction. Whichever way I try to look at this it isn't a customer friendly move.

This isn't just about money for everybody either because there are clearly people out there who can afford to upgrade with every version and yet many simply don't want or need to upgrade, so even for those people this move manages to provoke a negative reaction. Whichever way I try to look at this it isn't a customer friendly move.

I agree. And it is probably harder for business decisions. They are slow to change as they have to upgrade eveyone to keep them the same. So therefore they are slow to move to new technology unless they can be convinced it will increase profits.

If they miss one upgrade the price will then become unreasonable and believe they will look for alternatives. If there is a demand someone eles may develp a product to satisify thier needs. Will that be Adobe or some other company?

If they miss one upgrade the price will then become unreasonable and believe they will look for alternatives.

Maybe Adobe will continue to offer upgrade specials like they are doing now - If people upgrade to the previous version shortly before launch of the new version, they get the new version free. That virtually amounts to letting people upgrade from an earlier version. Some customers at least would be able to benefit.

Looking for alternatives is an option, but people who have been using Photoshop for years will have to be flexible enough to adapt to the alternative software gracefully. When I think of how some people go crazy over little tiny things that change from one version of PS to another...

Personally, I want the box with a DVD in it. One thing is to download a beta and another to upgrade to a GM version via download.

Using the DL means you have immediate access (well depending on your connection speed), and you never have to worry about losing your DVD. It's like Cloud storage, which means we all get the same download from the same place…

Re: So why do people outside of America have to pay nearly TWICE as much?

I doubt there's an easy answer to that question when one has to consider export/import fees, legal restrictions, taxes, currency valuation, et al.

I don't like having to pay what I consider an excessive price for European-sourced software due to currency exchange rates either, but I do it anyway because the software is going to save me a lot of time.

Like Photoshop in America, there is some great software produced by software engineers in other countries. I value their skills and want them to be compensated appropriately. Their software is making my efforts so much easier and allowing me to do better work, quicker.

When people complain about the cost of software in person to me, I usually tell them, "Well, write your own. In about ten years when your version has caught to to current levels, maybe you'll appreciate it more."

George, myself, and other mystified offshore customers, are using the relevant exchange rates to work out the difference in price between the US and our own particular countries. I can order other goods from overseas and pay with my NZ Mastercard, and I obviously use my NZ Mastercard while overseas myself. What I see in my account is the amount with that day’s exchange rate taken into account. In fact, to order Adobe products online, I have to use the Australian Adobe store, which charges my NZ Mastercard in Oz dollars according to the exchange rate.

It is not rocket science, and it works in an obvious and predictable way.

I wonder how US State tax is worked out for online orders? If a UK customer took VAT and import duty into account, it still wouldn’t come close to the price they actually pay, and it is same here with our GST.

AFAICT it is pure profiteering from a company that has a market monopoly because nothing else comes close to Photoshop, and it leaves a very bad taste in your mouth. Especially as no Adobe representative will even try to justify it.

I am pretty sure there would be no import duties on electronic goods. Just for the sake of comparison the Mac App Store seems to charge much the same price for apps sold in the UK as it does in the US. For example Pixelmator costs £20.99 in the UK or $29.99 in the US. At today's exchange rate £20.99 = $33.84, so it currently appears to be cheaper in the UK.

George, thanks for the link. Very interesting, but it does not explain anything — just confirms the problem. I can't even try to get round it by sourcing overseas, because my copy of CS5 was bought from the Oz online store, and I would not qualify for the upgrade discount anywhere else. So people like myself are completely at the mercy of Adobe's rip-off policy. When you Google the problem, a lot of people use the situation as an excuse to buy pirated versions. I wonder if Adobe took that into account with the reduction in cost for Lightroom 4 — a lot more people will stay legal at US$149, and Adobe might even come out ahead.

When you add Adobe's new single version upgrade policy to their offshore price hikes, it looks more and more like Adobe's marketing team and Board have a cynical disregard for their customers. Shame on them!

Adobe's senior Management really do need to read some of the comments in photographic and design-oriented websites to see the degree of anger and animosity, towards the Corporation as a whole, which is being expressed about the overseas pricing by their European, Australian and South African customers in particular.

No company can afford to ignore something as potentially damaging as the groundswell of adverse comments (and even direct incitement to boycott Adobe) that I am seeing being expressed on the internet at the moment.

That would be nice, but another voice counts more to business managers than a few comments in forums - namely profit margin. For all we know, Adobe management in the US might not even be directly setting the overseas prices - maybe it is country marketing managers doing that in order to achieve/exceed their revenue targets. If that is the case, a boycott of the products by international customers might even have the opposite effect - making the products overseas even more expensive

The answers to the questions about the CS6 pricing are available now, since the Adobe websites have been updated overnight.

Pricing and AvailabilityAdobe Photoshop CS6, Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended, Adobe Creative Suite 6 editions and Adobe Creative Cloud are scheduled to be available within 30 days and can be pre-ordered now. Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CS6 Extended will also be available through Adobe Authorized Resellers, the Adobe Store and Adobe Direct Sales; estimated street price for Photoshop CS6 is US$699 and US$999 for Photoshop CS6 Extended. Upgrade pricing is also available to eligible customers. Subscription pricing for Photoshop CS6 is US$19.99 per month for an annual contract and US$29.99 for a month-to-month contract. For more detailed information about features, OS support, system requirements, upgrade policies and pricing, please visitwww.adobe.com/photoshop.

Adobe Creative Cloud membership for individuals is US$49.99 per month based on annual membership and US$74.99 per month based on month-to-month membership and includes access to Photoshop CS6 Extended. A special introductory offer of US$29.99 per month for CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS5.5 individual customers is also available.Learn more atwww.adobe.com/go/creativecloud.